A Tale of One City: the New Birmingham eBook

Two other brothers, Mr. Herbert and Mr. Walter Chamberlain,
have at times been induced to take a little hand in
public work, but their efforts have been of a mild,
modest, innocent character. Now, however, they
have retired into that privacy from which they so timidly
emerged. For many reasons Mr. Chamberlain’s
brothers were, perhaps, wise not to bid high for public
place and position in Birmingham. People are apt
to be needlessly suspicious of too much family influence
in public concerns. There is always a tendency
and a readiness to inveigh against cliques, especially
family cliques. And at one time there was certainly
a disposition in some quarters to keep a jealous eye
upon Joseph and his brethren, lest they should acquire
an undue amount of influence and power. One blunt,
outspoken Scotchman, I remember, expressed this feeling
in his own characteristic way by saying, “If
we don’t mind we shall be having too much dom’d
Chamberlain.”

The Chamberlain family, however, being more or less
smart, spry men, were doubtless sharp enough to detect
some inkling of this sort of feeling, and consequently
they thought it better to silence any such cavillings
by eschewing as far as they could public life, and
contenting themselves with being brothers of a big
man and sharing a little reflected glory.

Whilst mentioning Mr. Chamberlain’s family I
must say a word of his brother-in-law, Mr. William
Kenrick, for some years M.P. for the Northern Division
of Birmingham. Mr. Kenrick was Mayor of Birmingham
in 1877, and a worthy and modest chief magistrate
he made. A generous, intelligent, public-spirited
man, he has always been liberal with his purse and
his time, and has done much to further educational
and philanthropic schemes. Mr. Kenrick belongs
to a class some cynical people consider very “cliquey.”
It is, however, to be wished there were more such
“cliquey” people in our midst, for they
are always conspicuously at the fore in supporting
by their influence and their money every good cause
which has for its object the alleviation of suffering
and the improvement of the people.

It is true that there was one important project inaugurated
some few years ago that did not enlist their sympathy.
This was the Birmingham Bishopric Scheme. But,
seeing that most of the “clique” are Unitarians,
they could hardly be expected to support a proposal
for the benefit of the Established Church. It
was a misfortune for that Church that the Chamberlain
party and their friends were aliens in religious matters.
Had it been otherwise the results of the proposed scheme
might have been very different. The “clique,”
when they do support a cause, do it with no niggardly
hand, and if it had so chanced that they had been Churchmen
instead of Unitarians, the probabilities are that by
this time Birmingham would have been in possession
of a full-sized Bishop all its own, and possibly a
fine, bran-new, costly cathedral to boot.